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Benefits of Using Short Stories in the EFL Context

Article  in  Asian EFL Journal · January 2005

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Title: Benefits of Using Short Stories in the EFL Context

Author: Odilea Rocha Erkaya

Address: ESKISEHIR OSMANGAZI UNIVERSITY

TURKEY

Email address: opre_br@yahoo.com

Brief history of professional expertise: Odilea Rocha Erkaya is an Assistant Professor of

EFL at Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Turkey. She has been teaching EFL/ESL for over 25
years. She taught EFL in Brazil in the 1970’s and ESL in the USA in the 1980’s, and has been
teaching EFL in Turkey since 1992. Her areas of interests are students’ and teachers’
motivation, authentic materials, and the use of literature in language instruction.

Qualifications: She received her master’s degree in Literature from Northeast Missouri State
University and Ph.D. in Higher and Adult Education with a specialization in TESL/TEFL
from Arizona State University, both in the USA.

Keywords: short stories in ESL/EFL instruction, benefits of short stories, selection of short
stories to suit students’ needs, higher-order thinking in ESL/EFL instruction

Abstract
The purpose of this article is to familiarize EFL instructors with the effectiveness of using
literature in language instruction. While some instructors may still believe that teaching EFL
encompasses focusing on linguistic benefits only, so eventually their students will
communicate in the target language, others who have integrated literature in the curricula
have realized that literature adds a new dimension to the teaching of EFL. Short stories, for
example, help students to learn the four skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing--
more effectively because of the motivational benefit embedded in the stories. In addition, with
short stories, instructors can teach literary, cultural, and higher-order thinking aspects.
However, before novice instructors attempt to use short stories in their EFL classes, they
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should understand the benefits of short stories and plan classes that meet the needs of their
students.

Introduction
The use of literature to teach second/foreign languages can be traced back to over one century
ago. In the nineteenth century, second/foreign languages were taught with the help of the
Grammar Translation Method. Students would translate literary texts from the second/foreign
language to their native language. When this method was replaced by methods that
emphasized structures and vocabulary, literature was no longer used. Thus, neither the Direct
Method nor the Audiolingual Method utilized literature to teach second/foreign languages. In
the seventies, methods such as the Community Language Learning, Suggestopedia, the Silent
Way, Total Physical Response, and the Natural Approach did not utilize literature to teach
second/foreign languages, and neither did the Notional-Functional Syllabus.

For the past two decades or so, literature has found its way back into the teaching of
EFL; however, not the way it was used with the Grammar Translation method. Instructors
have realized that literature can be used to reinforce the skills and complement language
teaching. Scher (1976) affirms that with students at the beginning and intermediate levels,
instructors can use literary texts for “language practice, reading comprehension, and possible
aesthetic appreciation” (Muyskens, 1983, p. 413). In contrast, with advanced students literary
texts may be utilized for the “development of knowledge of world literature, practice in
reading and discussing creative work, and the introduction of literary concepts, genres, and
terminologies—e g, recognition of figures of speech, levels of meaning, and other stylistic
features” (p. 413). Moreover, students can gain insight into literature by gaining entrance to a
world familiar or unfamiliar to them due to the cultural aspects of stories, and taking a voyage
from the literary text to their own minds to find meanings for ideas, leading to critical
thinking.

Benefits of short stories

Researchers who advocate the use of short stories to teach ESL/EFL list several benefits of
short stories. These include motivational, literary, cultural and higher-order thinking benefits.
Nevertheless, before instructors look at these benefits in more details, they need to be
reminded of one benefit that all instructors should take advantage of, reinforcement of skills.
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Reinforcing the skills

Short stories allow instructors to teach the four skills to all levels of language proficiency.
Murdoch (2002) indicates that “short stories can, if selected and exploited appropriately,
provide quality text content which will greatly enhance ELT courses for learners at
intermediate levels of proficiency” (p. 9). He explains why stories should be used to reinforce
ELT by discussing activities instructors can create such as writing and acting out dialogues.
Also, Oster (1989) affirms that literature helps students to write more creatively (p. 85).
Instructors can create a variety of writing activities to help students to develop their writing
skills. They can ask students to write dialogues (Murdoch, 2002, p. 9) or more complex
writing activities if students have reached a high level of language proficiency. For example,
if instructors bring to class “The Wisdom of Solomon,” they can assign the following writing
activities:

a. Write a dialogue between King Solomon and the guard holding the sword after the
mother and the son, and the other woman left the palace.
b. Paraphrase the first four sentences of the paragraph, “And in this way they argued . . .
whose child it was” (fourth paragraph from the bottom).
c. Summarize the story in three sentences, including the main character, setting, conflict,
climax, and resolution.
d. Write one sentence on the theme of the story.
e. Write a paragraph on what causes people to lie.
f. Write a classification essay on different kinds of lies.
Activities a and b are suitable for beginning levels; activities c, d, for intermediate levels; and
activity f, for advanced levels.

In addition, stories can be used to improve students' vocabulary and reading. Lao and
Krashen (2000) present the results of a comparison between a group of students that read
literary texts and a second group that read non-literary texts at a university in Hong Kong.
The group who read literary texts showed improvement in vocabulary and reading. Three
activities can be added to “The Wisdom of Solomon,” to help students to acquire more
vocabulary. These activities are related to form, meaning and use respectively.
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a. Complete the word form chart below. The first word has been done for you.
Remember that some words do not have all forms.
Participle Adjective Noun Verb Adverb
speaking speakable speaker speak ---------
--------- --------- --------- die ---------
There can be as many words as the instructor thinks necessary but not too many so as not to
make students lose interest in the activity that should be included in every story. This activity
helps students to learn more vocabulary, and it also teaches them how to use a dictionary.

b. Write the letter of the definition/synonym in column B that most closely matches
each word/phrase in column A.
In this activity, the words/phrases in column A come from the story students are reading. The
definitions and/or synonyms provided in column B must match the meaning of the
words/phrases in the context of the story to help students to understand how a different
word/phrase can be used in the same context.

c. Choose the word/phrase that best fits each sentence, drawing upon the list under
column A in the previous activity. You may need to add -s to a plural word or to a third
person singular of a verb in the present tense, -ed to the past tense of regular verbs, etc.
In activity c, students practice using the words that they already understand the meanings of.

Since “The Wisdom of Solomon” does not include a list of unknown words/phrases in
bold and the words/phrases do not have explanation and/or synonyms on the footnote,
instructors should add both. As a student taught by this author and instructor has said: “The
list of words helps us go on reading without stopping for too long to look them up in a
dictionary or thesaurus.”

As far as reading comprehension is concerned, the new vocabulary will help students
with comprehension; however, it does not guarantee that students will understand the story.
The activities included in section 3, Introducing literary elements, will reinforce reading
comprehension.

High-intermediate and advanced students also profit from literary texts. What they read
gives them the opportunity to come up with their own insights, helping them to speak the
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language in a more imaginative way. They become more creative since they are faced with
their own point of view, that/those of the main character(s) of the story and those of their
peers, according to Oster (1989, p. 85). This thoughtful process leads to critical thinking. As
Oster confirms, “Focusing on point of view in literature enlarges students' vision and fosters
critical thinking by dramatizing the various ways a situation can be seen” (p. 85). Therefore,
when students read, they interact with the text. By interacting with the text, they interpret
what they read. By interpreting what they read, they can work toward speaking English more
creatively. Activities on higher-order thinking are found in section 5, Teaching higher-order
thinking.

In reference to listening, instructors can do the following:

a. Read the story out loud so students have the opportunity to listen to a native
speaker of English (if at all possible); or
b. Play the story if a recording is available.
The activity is done for fun or for students to find answers to questions given and explained to
them prior to the listening activity. For students to understand the story when they listen to it
for the first time, the questions can be based on literary structures.
a. Who is the main character of “The Wisdom of Solomon”?
b. Where/when does the story take place?
c. What is the problem (conflict) in the story?

Motivating students
Since short stories usually have a beginning, middle and an end, they encourage students at all
levels of language proficiency to continue reading them until the end to find out how the
conflict is resolved. Elliott (1990), for example, affirms that literature motivates advanced
students and is “motivationally effective if students can genuinely engage with its thoughts
and emotions and appreciate its aesthetic qualities” (p. 197). He stresses the importance of
developing student–response (individual and group levels) and competence in literature. In
addition, one of the reasons Vandrick (1997) lists for using literature with students is that
literature motivates students “to explore their feelings through experiencing those of others”
(p. 1). In addition, according to the Internet article (author not named) “Using Literature in
Teaching English as a Foreign / Second Language” (2004), “Literature is motivating. . . .
Literature holds high status in many cultures and countries. For this reason, students can feel a
real sense of achievement at understanding a piece of highly respected literature. Also,
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literature is often more interesting than the texts found in coursebooks.” As a result,
instructors should agree that literary texts encourage students to read, and most literary texts
chosen according to students’ language proficiency levels and preferences will certainly be
motivating.

By selecting stories appropriate to students’ level of language proficiency, instructors

avoid “frustrational reading” (Schulz, 1981, p. 44). To choose stories according to students’
preferences, stories should have various themes because, as Akyel and Yalçin (1990) point
out, variety of themes will offer different things to many individuals’ interests and tastes (p.
178). But the themes should be “consistent with the traditions that the learners are familiar
with” (Widdowson, 1983, p. 32) to avoid conflicts.

Introducing literary elements

Instructors can introduce literary elements with short stories. With beginning and low
intermediate levels, instructors can teach simple elements, such as character, setting and plot.
The same and more complex elements, such as conflict, climax, resolution, etc., can be
introduced with more advanced levels. Gajdusek (1988) explains how literature can be
introduced by describing the order of activities: pre-reading activities, factual in-class work,
analysis and extending activities. In the pre-reading activities, students have the opportunity
to learn about the background of the story and vocabulary (p. 233). Instructors can start by
asking students questions before they are introduced to “The Wisdom of Solomon”:
a. What is justice?
b. How can people behave in a fair way?
c. Have you ever been treated unjustly? When? Why?

In factual in-class work, students should be introduced to who, what, where and when of
the story, or point of view, character, setting and action (pp. 238-239). If “The Wisdom of
Solomon” is the first story that students will read, instructors can add questions to the left
margin of the story. Each question should be placed next to the paragraph in which the answer
is found so students can begin to understand with the help of the instructor what each literary
structure means. The questions can be the ones below:
a. Who is the main character of the story?
b. Where does the story take place?
c. When does the story happen?
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d. Who is narrating the story?

Here is an example of the way each question could be placed on the left margin of the story.

“The Wisdom of Solomon”

1. Who is As the two women came to King Solomon to plead their case, one of
the main them spoke first. “I plead with you, Sire, to hear what I have to say!”
character? “Speak!’” said the King. “What is your problem?”

The questions on the left margin introduce students to character, setting, and point of view.
Both pre-reading activities and factual in-class work analysis can be assigned to beginning
and low intermediate students since they require very little analysis.

Extending activities, on the other hand, deals with why, that is, “involvement and
experience” (p. 245). Students must be able to use their knowledge of the language to express
their ideas. Thus, only students who have reached a high intermediate/advanced level of
language proficiency should be introduced to these activities. “This might . . . be the time to
approach the text as literature,” says Gajdusek (p. 245). About extending activities (writing
and in-class group work such as role-play), Gajdusek states that the activities ask “for
creative, relevant responses from the readers” (p. 251). For students to succeed, they must
have understood the story.

An extending activity that can get students more involved in the story is role-play.
Instructors can ask students to play the role of several characters.
a. Imagine you are the guard who is told by King Solomon to cut the child in half. If
you don’t think you can do what the King has asked you to do, tell him how you feel.
Make sure you are convincing.
b. Suppose you are the guard who is told by King Solomon to cut the child in half.
After cutting the child in half, tell him how you feel about his decision. Make sure you
are convincing.

Teaching culture
Short stories are effective when teaching culture to EFL students. Short stories transmit the
culture of the people about whom the stories were written. By learning about the culture,
students learn about the past and present, and about people’s customs and traditions. Culture
 8

teaches students to understand and respect people’s differences. When using literary texts,
instructors must be aware that the culture of the people (if different from that of the students)
for whom the text was written should be studied. As students face a new culture, they become
more aware of their own culture. They start comparing their culture to the other culture to see
whether they find similarities and/or differences between the two cultures. Misinterpretation
may occur due to differences between the two cultures as Gajdusek (1998, p. 232) explains.
To avoid misinterpretation, instructors should introduce the culture to the students or ask them
to find relevant information about it.

Before reading/listening to the story “The Wisdom of Solomon,” students should read
some information about King Solomon. The paragraph below tells students who King
Solomon was and how he became the wisest leader in the world. If students have access to the
Internet, instructors can ask them to read information about the King from
http://www.geocities.com/thekingsofisrael/biography_Solomon.html before they read/listen to
the story.

Solomon became king of Israel after the death of his father, David. The Old Testament
account of his life tells of how he had a special dream early in his reign. In his dream
God told him that he could ask for anything he desired. Solomon answered that he
wanted nothing more than to have an understanding heart in order to rule wisely over
his people. According to the account, God then praised Solomon for asking for
wisdom rather than riches and honor. The Old Testament writer says that Solomon
subsequently became the wisest leader in all the world. Many came to seek his advice,
even leaders of other countries. The most famous story of the wisdom of Solomon,
however, is the one in which he settles a dispute between two women about questions
of motherhood. (Janssen, 1981, p. 123)

Teaching higher-order thinking

Of all the benefits of short stories, higher-order thinking is the most exciting one. High
intermediate/advanced students can analyze what they read; therefore, they start thinking
critically when they read stories. Young (1996) discusses the use of children’s stories to
introduce critical thinking to college students. He believes that “stories have two crucial
advantages over traditional content: . . . [First,] because they are entertaining, students'
pervasive apprehension is reduced, and they learn from the beginning that critical thinking is
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natural, familiar, and sometimes even fun. Second, the stories put issues of critical thinking in
an easily remembered context” (p. 90). Howie (1993) agrees with the use of short stories to
teach critical thinking. He points out that instructors have the responsibility to help students to
develop cognitive skills because everyone needs to “make judgements, be decisive, come to
conclusions, synthesize information, organize, evaluate, predict, and apply knowledge.” By
reading and writing, students develop their critical thinking skills (p. 24).

Introduced by Bloom et al. in 1956, thinking skills, called Bloom’s Taxonomy of the
Cognitive Domain, include both lower-order and higher-order thinking. Depending on
students’ level of proficiency, instructors can activate students' lower-order or higher-order
thinking. Beginners are able to recall information and respond to questions about dates, events
and places. Thus, when asked questions about names of characters, setting and plot of the
story, they will have no difficulties responding to the questions. This is level 1 of the
taxonomy—knowledge. As students become more proficient in the language, they can move
to level 2—comprehension. In this level, they must demonstrate their comprehension by
comparing, interpreting, giving descriptions and stating main ideas. When students become
even more proficient, they move to level 3—application. In level 3, students try to solve
problems by using the knowledge they have about the story. In level 4—analysis—students
must have reached the high intermediate level of proficiency to succeed. The reason is that
students must analyze, compare, contrast, explain, infer, etc. facts/ideas about the story. Upon
reaching the advanced level of proficiency, students can synthesize and evaluate what they
read, the last two levels of the taxonomy (synthesis and evaluation). Instructors can then ask
questions such as “How would you change the plot?” “What would happen if . . .?” “What
changes would you make to solve . . .?” “Do you agree with the actions . . .? with the
outcomes . . .?” “Why did they (the character) [sic] choose . . .?” “What choice would you
have made . . .?” (Bloom’s critical thinking questioning strategies).

Questions added to each story should train the students to think critically. Some of the
questions are exemplified below:

1. In the story, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” would it have made any difference if the
real mother of the baby who was about to be cut in half, had stayed quiet instead of
pleading to King Solomon not to cut him and give him to the other woman?
 10

2. What would have happened if King Solomon had not heard the real mother of the
baby and cut the baby in half, giving half to the real mother and half to the other
woman who claimed to be the real mother?
Questions 1 and 2 require students to think of a different end to the same story and probably
see both the real mother of the baby and King Solomon in different ways from how they were
portrayed in the original story.

3. Do you agree with the way King Solomon acted? Do you agree with the way the
real mother acted?
4. Do you agree with the resolution of the story?
Questions 3 and 4 require students to make judgement.

Different stories may elicit different questions. The questions will depend on the plot,
characters, conflict, climax, complications, and resolution of each story. The more questions
requiring higher order-thinking students answer, the better prepared they will be to face the
world once they graduate.

Conclusion
Since the goal of EFL teaching must be to help students to communicate fluently in the target
language, instructors should focus not only on linguistic benefits, but also on other benefits.
In addition to the four skills, short stories help instructors to teach literary, cultural and
higher-order thinking aspects. As far as culture and other benefits are concerned, Henning
(1993) believes that culture should be integrated into the curriculum and “literature is one
feature . . . in the cultural domain that provides . . . added value beyond the level of language
acquisition.” Literature helps students to expand their “linguistic and cognitive skills, cultural
knowledge and sensitivity” (quoted in Shanahan, 1997, p. 165). Consequently, one can say
that integrating short stories into the curriculum will help EFL students to become well-
rounded professionals and human beings since short stories teach more than the skills
necessary for survival in the target language. Short stories teach literary, cultural and higher-
order thinking benefits.

References
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Akyel, A. and E. Yalçin. (1990). Literature in the EFL class: A study of goal-achievement in
congruence. ELT Journal, 44(3), 174-180.
Bloom’s critical thinking questioning strategies. (ND). Mrs. Sunda’s Gifted Resource Class.
Retrieved October 14, 2004, from
http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/litpack/bloom_handout.htm
Elliott, R. (1990). Encouraging reader-response to literature in ESL situations. ELT Journal
44(3), 191-198.
Gajdusek, L. (1988). Toward wider use of literature in ESL: Why and how. TESOL Quarterly
22(2), 227-257.
Howie, S. H. (1993). Critical thinking: A critical skill for students. Reading TODAY, 24.
Janssen, A.T. (1981). The wisdom of Solomon. International Stories. New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall, 122-124.
Lao, C. Y. and S. Krashen. (2000). The impact of popular literature study on literacy
development in EFL: More evidence for the power of reading. System, 28, 261-270.
Murdoch, G. (2002). Exploiting well-known short stories for language skills development.
IATEFL LCS SIG Newsletter 23, 9-17.
Myuskens, J. A. (1983). Teaching second-language literatures: Past, present and future. The
Modern Language Journal, 67, 413-423.
Oster, J. (1989). Seeing with different eyes: Another view of literature in the ESL class.
TESOL Quarterly, 23(1), 85-103.
Schulz, R. A. (1981). Literature and readability: Bridging the gap in foreign language reading.
The Modern Language Journal, 65, 43-53.
Shanahan, D. (1997). Articulating the relationship between language, literature, and culture:
Toward a new agenda for foreign language teaching and research. The Modern Language
Journal, 81, 164-174.
Using literature in teaching English as a foreign/second language. (2004). The Onestop
Magazine. Retrieved June 12, 2004, from
http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archiv…
Vandrick, S. (1997). Reading and responding to novels in the university ESL classroom. The
Journal of the Imagination in Language and Teaching, 4. Retrieved January 27, 2003,
from http://www.njcu.edu/CILL/vol4/vandrick.html
Widdowson, H. G. (1983). Talking shop: H.G. Widdowson on literature and ELT. ELT
Journal, 37(1), 30-35.
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Young, A. (1996). Introducing critical thinking at the college level with children’s stories.
College Teaching, 44(3), 90.

Note
A different version of this paper with a different title was presented at the 37th International
IATEFL Annual Conference in Brighton, UK, from April 22nd to 23rd, 2003. A summary of
the paper was published in IATEFL 2003 Brighton Conference Selections.

Appendix
“The Wisdom of Solomon”
As the two women came to King Solomon to plead their case, one of them spoke first. “I
plead with you, Sire, to hear what I have to say!”
“Speak!’” said the King. “What is your problem?”
She pointed to another woman who was standing near her with a tiny baby in her
arms. “Sire, this woman and I live in the same house. About two weeks ago I gave birth to a
son. She helped me. She and I were the only ones there.” As she spoke, tears came to her
eyes.
“Go on, my daughter,” said the King.
“Three days later, my lord, this woman also had a baby. And it, too, was a son. I
helped her give birth. There were still only two of us in the house.” Tears streamed from her
eyes as she continued.
“A few days later, her baby died in the night because she accidentally lay on it as she
slept. And then she took my son from my bed while I was sleeping and put her dead child
beside me.” She continued to weep as she spoke. “When I got up in the morning to nurse my
son, I found that it was dead; but when I examined it, I discovered that it was not my child.”
“That’s not the way it was!” the other woman interrupted. “That’s not the way it was
at all! She’s just making up an emotional story for you, Sire, and she has produced some tears
to go with it! This is my son; the dead child is hers!”
“You’re lying!” said the first woman. “And you know it! The living son is mine and
the other is hers!”
“Oh no it isn’t!” said the other woman, as she held the child close to her. “It’s the
other way around! This is my son!”
And in this way they argued back and forth in front of the King. Solomon had listened
and observed carefully and it seemed as though he had made up his mind. However, he asked
 13

the woman to lay the child down in front of him. He looked intently at the child and then at
each of the women as thought he were trying to determine by appearance whose child it was.
Then, to the great surprise of all who heard, King Solomon said, “Bring me a sword.” One of
his guards came with a sword in his hands. “Divide the child in two parts!” he said coldly.
“Give half to one and half to the other!”
As the guard raised the sword to obey the King, the first woman cried out, “Don’t kill
the child, my lord! Please don’t do it! Let him live and give him to her.”
The other woman, however, thought Solomon’s idea was a good one. “Cut it in two!”
she shouted. “Then neither one of us will have it!”
Then the King raised his hand and spoke. “Don’t kill the child! Give it to the first
woman!” he commanded, pointing to her. “She is the mother!”

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